Will pheromones cause someone to pick one teddy bear over other non-pheromone teddy bears? Well, my first basic pheromone experiment is done.

Here was the experiment

Six teddy bears which all look identical were each given two sprays of cologne/perfume as follows.

Polo (generic)

Blushing Cherry Blossom (Bath & Body Works)

Instant Gentleman (pheromones)

Drakkar Noir (generic)

Scent of Eros (pheromones)

Generic Peach Scented Fragrance

Pheromone Experiment Parameters

I had five (5) friends participating in this first pheromone experiment. They were separated. I was in the kitchen and they were in the greenroom. I called them in one-by-one to meet me in the kitchen. They knew I was running some kind of ‘study’ but they knew nothing at all beyond that.

The instructions given to the five participants were simply “Go into the den and you will see six teddy bears on stools. Pick up any teddy bear and bring it to me.” Learn more at http://astrobiosociety.org

I was in the kitchen as I didn’t want the other friends to see what the people before them had picked. Even though the bears all looked identical, I wanted to take extra precaution to ensure there was nothing “else” occurring.So, I call Cathy into the kitchen and send her into the den to pick a bear (bear in a den – lol!). Cathy is a 62 year old woman; divorced with two kids. The kids are grown and have moved-out and Cathy has several grandchildren. For 62, Cathy is a pretty open minded and adventurous lady BTW!​Cathy goes and brings back a bear. It was bear #1 – the polo wearing bear. I asked her why she picked that particular bear and she said “it was the first one so I just picked it up”. The bears are actually laid out from left-to-right so by the first one she meant the one furthest left.

Results

Here are the results of my pheromone experiment.

Score

OTHERS 1, PHEROMONES 0​The next friend I called in was Sarah. Sarah is a 33 year old female who is single. No kids, just one cat. I sent her to go pick a bear and she returned with bear #1. The polo bear… Again. When I asked her why she chose this bear, her response was similar to Cathy’s. Since I didn’t tell them what to look for in a bear, she just chose the first one.

Score

OTHERS 2, PHEROMONES 0

Clearly there was a pattern here, people were tending to pick the first bear — at least the first two people did. I considered changing the order of the bears or telling the participants to make sure and pass-by all the bears (so the pheromones could take hold) but I decided against it.

Other pheromone bear experiments are ahead so I would just leave this one the way it was.Next up, John. A 50 year old widower with four kids. I called him into the room and he had some questions so I reminded him to “JUST PICK A BEAR!” He went into the den and returned with bear #3. The bear wearing the “Instant Gentlemen” pheromone cologne. I asked John why he picked this bear and he replied “I just grabbed any bear like you said”. Ok, fair enough. Was this the pheromones at work or was it just random selection?

Score

OTHERS 2, PHEROMONES 1

Then I called Lisa into the room. Lisa is 32, has four kids and many pets. She is also very attractive. Sorry, I had to say something — WOW! I instructed her to pick a bear. She returned with bear #1. I asked her why and she said “I don’t know? Why, what was I supposed to pick?”… So far, people (women) either really seem drawn to generic Polo or they just all seem to pick the first bear (from left-to-right). Of the six bears, only two had been chosen; #1 and #3.

Score

OTHERS 3, PHEROMONES 1

My last victim, err, friend was Markus. He is 29 and newly married – no kids. Being a black man, he is also the only non-Caucasian of our group. I sent him to select a bear. He took much longer than the others and returned with bear #4. I asked why he picked that bear and he said “I like the way it smelled the best”. So, even though I had not instructed anyone to pay attention to the smell, Markus figured the smell must have something to do with the experiment and was drawn to the generic Drakkar Noir.

FINAL SCORE

OTHERS 4, PHEROMONES 1

So, at least in the first experiment, pheromones seemed to have no effect on the result. A pheromone teddy was selected once, or 20% of the time. This may be because the participants didn’t sense the pheromones…

​This may be because they ignored them and went with the bear closest (most times)… This may be because human pheromone colognes are nonsense… Who knows! But, the experiment was done and one thing IS for sure.

​Pheromones did not cause people to select one teddy more often than another. Not in this first experiment anyhow.